TenPinSniper
12-12-2007, 08:49 PM
PBA News
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Ritchie Allen is one of three exempt bowlers who make their home in South Carolina. PBA Spare Shots
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - 12/12/2007
Click here to view this article as a PDF (http://www.pba.com/file_upload/spareshots/Spartanburg%20.pdf)
This Week
The ninth event of the 2007-08 Denny’s PBA Tour and the final event of the first half takes place this week at Shamrock Lanes in Spartanburg, S.C., with the 2007 Spartanburg Classic, Dec. 12-16. The live ESPN-televised finals will take place Sunday, Dec. 16 at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium at 1 p.m. EST.
This marks the first-ever Denny’s PBA Tour event in the state of South Carolina. The Tour was invited to Spartanburg because Denny’s, a PBA sponsor since early 2005 and the PBA Tour’s title sponsor since October 2005, bases its headquarters in the South Carolina town.
A trio of exempt bowlers hail from South Carolina, including 2005-06 PBA Player of the Year Tommy Jones, who lives in Simpsonville, S.C. Two-time titlist Ritchie Allen makes his home in Columbia, S.C. while Ken Simard, who is in his first season as an exempt bowler, is from Greenville, S.C.
Last Week
Ten was the lucky number for Patrick Allen last Sunday, who knocked down all 10 pins in the 10th frame of the title match against Wes Malott to capture his 10th career Denny’s PBA Tour title with a 247-217 win in the Lumber Liquidators Championship at AMF Country Club Lanes in Baltimore.
The win made Allen eligible for the PBA Hall of Fame once he retires, which is still a long way away. Allen has now won at least one title in five consecutive seasons and has won nine of his 10 titles in that span. The 2004-05 PBA Player of the Year knocked off the No. 2 seed Malott who was looking for his third career title.
It was the second time during the week Allen needed a big shot in the 10th to beat Malott. The two faced off in the No. 1 vs. No. 2 seed match of the position round, with the No. 1 seed for the stepladder finals hanging in the balance. Allen doubled in the 10th frame of that match to tie Malott at 248 and hang onto the top seed, which meant he only needed one win Sunday.
Malott advanced to the title match with a 236-207 win over Mike DeVaney, who won three consecutive matches to make the semifinal, including an exciting win in a four-bowler shootout to start the show in which three of the four bowlers had the opportunity to tie. Chris Barnes, DeVaney and Chris Warren could have all struck out for 258, but Warren could only manage two strikes, Barnes got just one and DeVaney struck out for the win.
This Week's Schedule
The 2007 Spartanburg Classic at Shamrock Lanes gets underway Wednesday with the Denny’s PBA Tour Qualifying Round (TQR), which is followed by the official PBA Practice Session at 4:30 p.m. For the third time this season, a record 11 PBA members plus the top amateur in the TQR will advance to Thursday’s Round of 64, which features two seven-game qualifying blocks from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-10 p.m.
The field will be cut to the top 32 bowlers who will advance to round robin match play on Friday. The first nine-game block takes place at 11 a.m. with the top 16 advancing to bowl an additional nine games at 6 p.m. The top five advance to the championship round Sunday at 1 p.m. Saturday is a day for the fans as PBA Pro-Ams and Fan Day take place at Shamrock Lanes, with Pro-Ams at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.
On Sunday, the live ESPN-televised finals take place at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium, marking the third arena event of the season. The five-bowler stepladder final gets underway at 1 p.m. EST. The winner takes home $25,000 and an exemption for the 2008-09 season.
Did You Know?
Wes Malott has finished second in four of his last five championship round appearances since winning his second career Denny’s PBA Tour title.
The streak started with a 222-221 loss to Tommy Jones in the 2006 Ace Hardware Championship. Following a third-place finish in the 2006 Earl Anthony Medford Classic, Malott finished second to Pete Weber in last season’s 64th U.S. Open. This season, Malott has finished second in both of his TV appearances, falling to Michael Haugen Jr. in the Lake County Indiana Classic and Patrick Allen in last week’s Lumber Liquidators Championship.
Eleven Spots Available This Week
For the third time this season, a record 11 spots will be available for PBA members in Wednesday’s Denny’s PBA Tour Qualifying Round as seven exempt bowlers will not compete this week.
Jason Couch is out for the season with a knee injury and Tim Criss has announced his retirement following last week’s Lumber Liquidators Championship in his hometown of Baltimore. Also out this week and waiting to hear back on injury deferments are Jeff Carter, Patrick Healey Jr. and Tony Reyes. Additionally, Norm Duke and Robert Smith will take this week off to rest nagging injuries heading into the holiday break.
Last week, Rhino Page proved once again the benefits of bowling the weekly Tour Qualifying Rounds as he became the seventh bowler in four seasons to advance to a championship round the same week he qualified through the TQR. Though Page fell short of winning his first career title, he continued his historic 2007-08 season, setting the seven-game scoring in the TQR, advancing through his fifth TQR in six weeks and making match play for the fourth time. He is now 17th in the PBA World Point Rankings.
What a Difference a Year Makes
At this time last year, no one wanted to be the top seed for a stepladder final as it seemed to be the kiss of death. Over a two-year stretch, top seeds lost nine consecutive stepladder finals, a streak which was finally broken by Jason Couch in last season’s 2007 Dick Weber Open title match.
Since then, the tables have completely turned as top seeds have won six of the last seven stepladder finals and four in a row. Patrick Allen stretched top seeds’ record to 3-0 in 2007-08 with his win over No. 2 Wes Malott in last week’s Lumber Liquidators Championship. Allen also won the 2007 Go RVing Classic as the top seed last season. In addition to Allen, Sean Rash won this season’s USBC Masters as the top seed and Robert Smith won the CLR Windy City Classic as the No. 1 seed.
Williams Does it Again
For the fifth time in eight events this season, Walter Ray Williams Jr. made the championship round, proving it doesn’t matter the oil pattern, the surface or the format.
Williams has made shows in the single elimination format (Taylor, Mich.; Cheektowaga, N.Y.; Wyoming, Mich.), the round robin format (Baltimore) and the double elimination format (USBC Masters). He’s made the finals with four different oil patterns (Masters, Viper, Scorpion, Cheetah), two different lane oils (Absolute Control, Authority 22) and on two different surfaces (HPL, Pro-Anvil). He’s made the final of a Major and the final of four standard events. He’s made four-man finals, five-man finals and eight-man finals. And he’s made indoor finals and outdoor finals (Miller Park, Milwaukee, Wis.). In other words, it doesn’t matter what the week may bring, Williams keeps proving again and again he’s one of the greatest bowlers who’s ever lived.
DeVaney Bounces Back
It looked early on in the Lumber Liquidators Championship that Mike DeVaney would have the least success of any of the four bowlers in the shootout and certainly the eight total bowlers on the show. DeVaney started the finals with a failed single-pin conversion then left a 4-9 split and opened in the second frame.
What happened over the next 24 frames was incredible. DeVaney struck on his last 10 shots in the shootout to win the match with a 258, then started his match against Rhino Page with three consecutive strikes giving him 13 in a row. After a nine spare in the fourth frame, DeVaney struck seven consecutive times to give him 20 strikes in 21 frames, and at that point he had more open frames (2) than spares (1).
DeVaney would strike twice to start his next game against Mike Wolfe to give him 22 strikes in 24 frames, but the streak was broken with an open in the third frame. Eventually, DeVaney would go on to defeat Wolfe, 221-220, to advance to the semifinal, where he fell to Wes Malott, 236-207.
Welcome Back, Chris
It had been a long time since Chris Warren’s last championship round appearance, but finally on Dec. 10 Warren was back under the TV lights, 12 years, 10 months and 10 days after his last TV appearance.
The mark now stands as the second-longest time between TV appearances in the PBA record books, two years shy of John Handegard’s record set in 1995. Warren could have broke the record for most years between titles as his last title came in the 1992 Florida Open, but he fell just short in the four-bowler shootout, falling one pin shy of Mike DeVaney’s 258.
http://www.pba.com/images_upload/article/article618_3403.jpg
Ritchie Allen is one of three exempt bowlers who make their home in South Carolina. PBA Spare Shots
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - 12/12/2007
Click here to view this article as a PDF (http://www.pba.com/file_upload/spareshots/Spartanburg%20.pdf)
This Week
The ninth event of the 2007-08 Denny’s PBA Tour and the final event of the first half takes place this week at Shamrock Lanes in Spartanburg, S.C., with the 2007 Spartanburg Classic, Dec. 12-16. The live ESPN-televised finals will take place Sunday, Dec. 16 at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium at 1 p.m. EST.
This marks the first-ever Denny’s PBA Tour event in the state of South Carolina. The Tour was invited to Spartanburg because Denny’s, a PBA sponsor since early 2005 and the PBA Tour’s title sponsor since October 2005, bases its headquarters in the South Carolina town.
A trio of exempt bowlers hail from South Carolina, including 2005-06 PBA Player of the Year Tommy Jones, who lives in Simpsonville, S.C. Two-time titlist Ritchie Allen makes his home in Columbia, S.C. while Ken Simard, who is in his first season as an exempt bowler, is from Greenville, S.C.
Last Week
Ten was the lucky number for Patrick Allen last Sunday, who knocked down all 10 pins in the 10th frame of the title match against Wes Malott to capture his 10th career Denny’s PBA Tour title with a 247-217 win in the Lumber Liquidators Championship at AMF Country Club Lanes in Baltimore.
The win made Allen eligible for the PBA Hall of Fame once he retires, which is still a long way away. Allen has now won at least one title in five consecutive seasons and has won nine of his 10 titles in that span. The 2004-05 PBA Player of the Year knocked off the No. 2 seed Malott who was looking for his third career title.
It was the second time during the week Allen needed a big shot in the 10th to beat Malott. The two faced off in the No. 1 vs. No. 2 seed match of the position round, with the No. 1 seed for the stepladder finals hanging in the balance. Allen doubled in the 10th frame of that match to tie Malott at 248 and hang onto the top seed, which meant he only needed one win Sunday.
Malott advanced to the title match with a 236-207 win over Mike DeVaney, who won three consecutive matches to make the semifinal, including an exciting win in a four-bowler shootout to start the show in which three of the four bowlers had the opportunity to tie. Chris Barnes, DeVaney and Chris Warren could have all struck out for 258, but Warren could only manage two strikes, Barnes got just one and DeVaney struck out for the win.
This Week's Schedule
The 2007 Spartanburg Classic at Shamrock Lanes gets underway Wednesday with the Denny’s PBA Tour Qualifying Round (TQR), which is followed by the official PBA Practice Session at 4:30 p.m. For the third time this season, a record 11 PBA members plus the top amateur in the TQR will advance to Thursday’s Round of 64, which features two seven-game qualifying blocks from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-10 p.m.
The field will be cut to the top 32 bowlers who will advance to round robin match play on Friday. The first nine-game block takes place at 11 a.m. with the top 16 advancing to bowl an additional nine games at 6 p.m. The top five advance to the championship round Sunday at 1 p.m. Saturday is a day for the fans as PBA Pro-Ams and Fan Day take place at Shamrock Lanes, with Pro-Ams at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.
On Sunday, the live ESPN-televised finals take place at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium, marking the third arena event of the season. The five-bowler stepladder final gets underway at 1 p.m. EST. The winner takes home $25,000 and an exemption for the 2008-09 season.
Did You Know?
Wes Malott has finished second in four of his last five championship round appearances since winning his second career Denny’s PBA Tour title.
The streak started with a 222-221 loss to Tommy Jones in the 2006 Ace Hardware Championship. Following a third-place finish in the 2006 Earl Anthony Medford Classic, Malott finished second to Pete Weber in last season’s 64th U.S. Open. This season, Malott has finished second in both of his TV appearances, falling to Michael Haugen Jr. in the Lake County Indiana Classic and Patrick Allen in last week’s Lumber Liquidators Championship.
Eleven Spots Available This Week
For the third time this season, a record 11 spots will be available for PBA members in Wednesday’s Denny’s PBA Tour Qualifying Round as seven exempt bowlers will not compete this week.
Jason Couch is out for the season with a knee injury and Tim Criss has announced his retirement following last week’s Lumber Liquidators Championship in his hometown of Baltimore. Also out this week and waiting to hear back on injury deferments are Jeff Carter, Patrick Healey Jr. and Tony Reyes. Additionally, Norm Duke and Robert Smith will take this week off to rest nagging injuries heading into the holiday break.
Last week, Rhino Page proved once again the benefits of bowling the weekly Tour Qualifying Rounds as he became the seventh bowler in four seasons to advance to a championship round the same week he qualified through the TQR. Though Page fell short of winning his first career title, he continued his historic 2007-08 season, setting the seven-game scoring in the TQR, advancing through his fifth TQR in six weeks and making match play for the fourth time. He is now 17th in the PBA World Point Rankings.
What a Difference a Year Makes
At this time last year, no one wanted to be the top seed for a stepladder final as it seemed to be the kiss of death. Over a two-year stretch, top seeds lost nine consecutive stepladder finals, a streak which was finally broken by Jason Couch in last season’s 2007 Dick Weber Open title match.
Since then, the tables have completely turned as top seeds have won six of the last seven stepladder finals and four in a row. Patrick Allen stretched top seeds’ record to 3-0 in 2007-08 with his win over No. 2 Wes Malott in last week’s Lumber Liquidators Championship. Allen also won the 2007 Go RVing Classic as the top seed last season. In addition to Allen, Sean Rash won this season’s USBC Masters as the top seed and Robert Smith won the CLR Windy City Classic as the No. 1 seed.
Williams Does it Again
For the fifth time in eight events this season, Walter Ray Williams Jr. made the championship round, proving it doesn’t matter the oil pattern, the surface or the format.
Williams has made shows in the single elimination format (Taylor, Mich.; Cheektowaga, N.Y.; Wyoming, Mich.), the round robin format (Baltimore) and the double elimination format (USBC Masters). He’s made the finals with four different oil patterns (Masters, Viper, Scorpion, Cheetah), two different lane oils (Absolute Control, Authority 22) and on two different surfaces (HPL, Pro-Anvil). He’s made the final of a Major and the final of four standard events. He’s made four-man finals, five-man finals and eight-man finals. And he’s made indoor finals and outdoor finals (Miller Park, Milwaukee, Wis.). In other words, it doesn’t matter what the week may bring, Williams keeps proving again and again he’s one of the greatest bowlers who’s ever lived.
DeVaney Bounces Back
It looked early on in the Lumber Liquidators Championship that Mike DeVaney would have the least success of any of the four bowlers in the shootout and certainly the eight total bowlers on the show. DeVaney started the finals with a failed single-pin conversion then left a 4-9 split and opened in the second frame.
What happened over the next 24 frames was incredible. DeVaney struck on his last 10 shots in the shootout to win the match with a 258, then started his match against Rhino Page with three consecutive strikes giving him 13 in a row. After a nine spare in the fourth frame, DeVaney struck seven consecutive times to give him 20 strikes in 21 frames, and at that point he had more open frames (2) than spares (1).
DeVaney would strike twice to start his next game against Mike Wolfe to give him 22 strikes in 24 frames, but the streak was broken with an open in the third frame. Eventually, DeVaney would go on to defeat Wolfe, 221-220, to advance to the semifinal, where he fell to Wes Malott, 236-207.
Welcome Back, Chris
It had been a long time since Chris Warren’s last championship round appearance, but finally on Dec. 10 Warren was back under the TV lights, 12 years, 10 months and 10 days after his last TV appearance.
The mark now stands as the second-longest time between TV appearances in the PBA record books, two years shy of John Handegard’s record set in 1995. Warren could have broke the record for most years between titles as his last title came in the 1992 Florida Open, but he fell just short in the four-bowler shootout, falling one pin shy of Mike DeVaney’s 258.